a sop to Cerberus



a sop to Cerberus

A bribe. Taken from the ancient Greek and Roman custom of leaving gifts with corpses so that Cerberus (guardian of the gates of hell) would pass them by. What is this money, a sop to Cerberus so that I won't tell the authorities what you've done?
See also: sop

Common Names:

NameGenderPronouncedUsage
Liudvika-Lithuanian
Decker['dekə]
EduardE-doo-ahrt (German)German, Russian, Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Catalan, Dutch, Estonian, Romanian, Georgian, Armenian
Vellamo-Finnish Mythology
Montserratmoon-sə-RAHTCatalan
Padrig-Welsh, Breton